EU Member States are threatening to cut the budget of the AgoraEU Programme by 30%, which will severely weaken human rights organisations and jeopardise disability rights.
AgoraEU is a proposed funding programme to support civil society and cultural organisations in the EU’s next budget. This would include organisations of persons with disabilities who currently benefit from funding under the Citizens, Equality, Rights, and Values Programme (CERV), including the European Disability Forum.
These cuts can threaten our very existence and those of other equality organisations!
From 2028, the CERV Programme will become part of the new AgoraEU Programme, as a strand known as CERV+. The European Commission explicitly retained operating grants in the proposal, and the originally proposed budget for the AgoraEU Regulation was – which, while not an improvement, was welcomed by civil society organisations as keeping stable funding.
However, discussions among EU countries are going in the wrong direction. Instead of increasing funding for civil society, they are proposing severe cuts to reduce the funding for AgoraEU. This would produce mere savings of 0.2% in the overall budget, while potentially leading many civil society organisations to close.
We and our allies in Civil Society Europe have intensified our campaign around the EU budget to prevent these cuts. We have stressed to decision-makers that the damage to civil society and therefore Europe’s resilience would be lasting and potentially irreversible, at a time when equality policies and civic space are under acute pressure.
Organisations of Persons with Disabilities are already at their limit, suffering from funding cuts by national governments, and have to address an increasing workload with our rights constantly under pressure.
Therefore, the Forum has adopted an emergency Resolution on this topic at our recent Board meeting in Ireland, asking policy-makers and especially the EU Member States to:
- Preserve and defend a robust AgoraEU budget, with funding at least equivalent to the European Commission proposal and protecting the proportion of this funding foreseen for CERV+ in the Commission’s proposal.
- Recognise AgoraEU and its budget as critical infrastructure for Europe’s collective future.
- Make sure that Organisations of Persons with Disabilities will still be able to benefit from EU operating grants under the CERV+ of AgoraEU to ensure real participation of persons with disabilities in EU decision-making.
If you want to support this campaign, please send the text of the Resolution to the Finance Ministers and the Culture Ministers of your Member States, asking them to oppose the proposed 30% cuts.
For more information, you can contact Marie Denninghaus at the EDF secretariat (marie.denninghaus@edf-feph.org).